The traditional QWERTY keyboard and computer mouse have remained the most preferred input devices for personal computers—especially in combination. Yet in many circumstances, there is just not enough physical workspace to use them both. As an example, most laptop computers do not rely upon computer mice, but rather come with integrated touchpads or miniature joysticks as pointing devices. As another example, miniature keyboards designed to be operated by two thumbs (rather than ten fingers) have been incorporated in a number of mobile devices. These thumb keyboards are often called “thumbboards.” The present invention integrates a thumb-operated alphanumeric keyboard and a mouse in a novel way to overcome workspace limitations.
It is well known that one of the fastest ways to enter text into a computer is for a skilled touch-typist to use a standard sized keyboard such as a QWERTY keyboard. (This is many times faster than hand-writing or hand-printing.) Optimal use requires the typist to be able to use all 10 fingers. Using one or two fingers to “hunt-and-peck” may cut speed and accuracy by half or more. As the keyboard gets smaller, both speed and accuracy decrease. Small reductions in key size and spacing may have only a minor effect, but at some point, the typist can no longer effectively use all ten fingers and may be reduced to “hunt-and-peck” typing.
Much smaller QWERTY keyboards have been found effective, especially for composing email, if they can be held in the user's two hands and operated by the user's two thumbs. Such keyboards have been incorporated into the Research in Motion (RIM) Blackberry® device and the Palm® Treo™ Smart Phone. These look like the standard “candy bar” style cell phone, but are significantly wider to accommodate the mini-QWERTY keyboard.
Many people find that Blackberry-sized smart phones are just too large for comfortable use as a phone. For this reason, many business people carry both a BlackBerry for email and a much smaller cell phone for voice calls.
Smaller keypads, such as that of a standard phone keypad, which have more than one letter per key, require either multiple keystrokes per letter, or word prediction software. Many users have found this fast enough and accurate enough for short text messaging know as “SMS,” but many find that phone pad text entry is not accurate enough or fast enough for business email correspondence. For a laboratory comparison of text entry on mini-QWERTY keyboards versus other methods, see “An Empirical Study of Typing Rates on mini-QWERTY Keyboards, by Clarkson, Clawson, Lyons and Stamer (Georgia Institute of Technology) at http://www-static.cc.gatech.edu/fac/Thad.Starner/p/030—10_MTE/mini-qwerty-chi05.pdf.
Some cell phones try to include a mini-QWERTY keyboard without increasing their width by folding or sliding the keyboard into the phone, which often makes them thicker than typical cell phones. Examples include the UTStarcom XV6800, the LG Voyager VX10000, and the Danger/T-Mobile® Sidekick®.
It is well known in the art of computer peripheral devices how to construct computer input devices that communicate wirelessly with the computer. Prior art includes computer mice that communicate with a computer wirelessly. They communicate via RF, infrared, Bluetooth® or otherwise. They communicate wirelessly with hardware (such as Bluetooth) built into the computer, or they are sold with a separate wireless receiver (or transceiver) for the computer that plugs into the computer's USB port or slides into a PC card holder. For example, the Microsoft Standard Wireless Mouse uses the RF standard and requires a separate RF transceiver that plugs into the computer, the Microsoft Wireless Laser Mouse 8000 uses the Bluetooth standard but the manufacturer suggests that best results are obtained when using the Microsoft Mini Bluetooth Transceiver, while the Microsoft Wireless Bluetooth Mouse 5000 is designed to forgo a transceiver for computers with built in Bluetooth technology. Some mice (such as the Kensington Si650m Wireless Notebook Optical Mouse) have the USB receiver miniaturized so that it can be stored in a compartment inside the mouse when the mouse is not in use.
There are also keyboards which communicate with a computer wirelessly. They communicate via RF, infrared, Bluetooth or otherwise. For example, the Kensington Wireless PilotBoard Desktop keyboard uses RF technology, while the wireless Logitech diNovo Edge keyboard uses Bluetooth.
It is well known in the art how to construct computer mice to sense positional change. Computer mice sense positional change in a number of ways. Some have a roller ball on the bottom (bottom surface) that maintains contact with the external surface over which the mouse moves. The mouse then senses the movement of that roller ball. These mice usually need a flat clean surface on which to operate. (See “How Computer Mice Work,” by Marshall Brain and Carmen Carmack at http://computer.howstuffworks.com/mouse2.htm.)
In contrast, optical mice have a light source (laser or other) on the bottom of the mouse which beams light on the surface over which the mouse moves. The first optical mice required that the mouse was used on a special surface with marked grid lines. The mouse then senses when the reflection of the light was interrupted by these lines and uses that information to sense change in position. More recently, optical mice use an imaging device (similar to the chip in a digital camera) to take many pictures per second of the surface over which the mouse moves. Internal software then compares each picture to the previous one and calculates the change in position. These mice do not need a perfectly flat surface, but do need a visual “texture” that the mouse can sense. (See “How Computer Mice Work,” by Marshall Brain and Carmen Carmack at http://computer.howstuffworks.com/mouse4.htm for a discussion of both types of optical mice.) Many optical mice use a small light-emitting diode (LED) as the light source, while others used a laser-based light source that can be used on a greater range of surfaces.
Some mice use an inertial system to sense a change in position. These do not need to move over a flat surface—or any surface. They can be moved in the air and the inertial system will sense the change of position. Examples include the Gyration GO 2.4 GHz Optical Air Mouse and the Logitech MX Air Cordless Air Mouse. (See discussion of Motion-Based Mice in “How Computer Mice Work,” by Marshall Brain and Carmen Carmack at: http://computer.howstuffworks.com/mouse9.htm with explanation of how Gyration uses miniature gyroscopes to sense position.)
It is well known how to construct a device that senses its orientation in three-dimensional space. That is, sensors know whether the device is “up” or “down” in its orientation to the horizontal and vertical axes. Such sensors are sometimes called inclinometers, clinometers or tilt sensors. More recently miniaturized microelectromechanical devices (also called “mems”) using semiconductor technology have been used to create tiny inertial sensors and accelerometers, which can measure motion in three dimensions and detect gravity. Such sensors are used in game controllers like the Nintendo® Wii®. They are also used in the Apple® iPhone to keep the image displayed on the screen right-side up. As the iPhone screen is rotated 90 degrees from portrait to landscape mode, the sensor tells the phone software the orientation of the screen, and the phone software uses this information to decide how to display the image on the screen.
The Gyration Air Mouse actually houses two ways to sense positional change. When placed on a flat surface, it has a light source and optical sensor and acts as an optical mouse. When the Gyration Air Mouse is lifted off the surface and held in the air, it uses its inertial sensors to sense positional change. To prevent confusion between the two types of positional sensors (optical and inertial) the Gyration Air Mouse employs two features. It has a second light source on its “bottom” with an optical sensor, the sole purpose of which is to determine if the bottom of the mouse is on a surface. When the bottom is not on or near a surface, the first light source is turned off, so no positional information is obtained by the optical sensors. In addition, it has a trigger-like button on its bottom that has to be pressed for the inertial sensors to transmit positional change information to the computer.
In the Gyration Air Mouse, the second light source is used as a proximity detector (is the base of the mouse near a surface). It is well known how to construct other types of proximity detectors based upon touch, pressure, heat, or disruption of electromagnetic field. The Apple iPhone uses a proximity detector to sense when the iPhone is held next to the user's ear, in which case the screen is turned off to conserve power.
The iPhone also uses an ambient light sensor to automatically adjust the display brightness to the appropriate level. This saves power and improves the user experience.
The Kensington SlimBlade Media Mouse also has buttons on its bottom. The SlimBlade Media Mouse includes on the bottom of the mouse, a five function navigation pad for controlling multi-media functions of the computer. The functions are volume up, volume down, back, forward, and play/pause. The mouse communicates with the computer by a small USB transceiver. When not in use the USB transceiver fits into a compartment inside the mouse, and placing the transceiver in the compartment turns off the mouse to conserve its batteries. However, when the navigational pad is facing “up”, squeezing one of the mouse buttons on the other side (now on the “bottom”), still activates that function, and moving one's finger over the mouse optical sensor (position on the same side as the navigation pad) will move the computer cursor. In other words, the mouse itself does not appear to determine which side of the device is “up” or control which sensors (top or bottom) transmit information to the computer.